Guest, family member, employee ?

This is not easy to find your place in a family. Especially chinese family.

We have talked a lot about this with other au pairs and we all found that in the first month you are treaten like a prince. Because in China you are seen as a gest. And gest have all the benefits !
But as soon as you become a member of the family (or employee sometimes) you have to do more things by yourself..

And if you see things from the “employee” point of view, you have to work harder and harder to satisfy the host family.

So it is a bit hard to understand at the beginning because after 1 month, they started to treat me as a member of the family. And you feel that they are less nice with you.. But you always have to remember that chinese culture is different.

For example, in Europe, at the beginning the family can be a little cold and have high expectation because they don’t know you. But when the time pass, when they trust you, you become a member of the family, everything gets better, and they will take you everywhere with them.

So that’s why I think you have to step back and even if they do not smile everytime, they are probably satisfied of your work !

The most difficult is that every week my host mom tell me “you have to do a plan, you have to prepare materials for the week etc.”. And I have already shew her my work, the plan for the week and talked to her about what I do with Chloe but she doesn’t seem to see it.

To conclude, try to do your best everytime ! (that will be a usefull skill when I will come back to France haha)